Step Two: Don’t Bother With DDP

Update: When asked about what his plans are following his third light heavyweight title defense, Pereira said something through his translator in the octagon that sounded like music to my ears. “We saw that Dricus is going to be fighting Sean Strickland. He’s a training partner of mine. I don’t want to get in his way.”

Perfect. No notes. Glad you’ve put that silly idea to bed, big man.

After making quick work of Rountree, the next step on Alex Pereira’s path to a third belt is ignoring Dricus Du Plessis altogether.

We get it. The guy has an extremely punchable face and seems like the most beatable champion on the roster—although his wins over Robert Whittaker, Sean Strickland, and Israel Adesanya should be reasons to second-guess that notion. But despite how confident Pereira may feel about his chances against the middleweight champ, if he aims to create an iron-clad MMA legacy, moving back down to 185 would literally and figuratively be a regression. He’s won that belt already. Winning it again would be mostly meaningless.

As far as retreads are concerned, Pereira should only be looking in his rearview to get a glimpse at one man.